Hell on Earth

Esper floated towards the wall, but was stopped from entering it.

"Hmm.." she snarled "A Spirit Blocker...Cautious as ever.."

She spied a crack in the brickwork and squeezed her way inside.

"Next time, Azrael, make the place you hide in one without a crack or two." she laughed, "Now lets see what they are up to."

Faith coughed, batting a little at the plume of nauseating smog, quickly scrambling back a ways to get away from the rancid plume, practically gagging"gods, you're foul as well as rude, do what ever the hell you want..." She croaked,eyes narrowed in disgust as she turned back to 'lea', nodding at his suggestion to get to his place. It would hardly stop malady from being nosy but it might at least be safer hen being out on the street.

As soon as they were inside and azrael introduced himself for what he was the female fox took off her cloak, setting it over the back of the chair. Her clothes were made of supple leather and there were quite a few weapons dangling from her belts, most having angel runes carved into them. " faith" she introduced herself simply as she extended a hand. "Demon specialist of the paladin order...which pretty much boils down to I do the dirty demon hunting work for the holier then thou sticks up their asses...".

She then gestured to her companion, who had lowered her hood as well" and this is my companion wick, this is her first time on an actual mission...I'm supposed to keep her ass alive through it..this is her quest rather then mine" she drawled.

Wick was a pangolin and her appearance almost seemed to scream angel. Her skin and scales beautiful soft shades of gold and sunlight. Her eyes were like fire, yet held a certain softness. She screamed inoscence as she stood there wide eyed and nervous, plucking as her gloves.

" we're trying to strengthen a seal on a gods request...the scrying mirror isn't a demons..it belongs to the god of malevolence... It needs to be destroyed to buy us more time strengthening the seal so he can't get out into the world" the young paladin babbled nervously.

"A paladin? You wouldn't happen to know one by the name godsworn would you?" He shook his head now wasn't the time to ask about old friends. "Anyway. I'll be willing to help but it would be better we go when the streets arnt so busy. Lea hears things from time to time. No one goes out at night around here" his demonic red eyes shifted to the side. Then looks to wick. "So you need the mirror to buy some more time. I think I know someone here who knows the citadel better than me. But you might not like him. A dark paladin I helped once"

The antennae flicked. Once. Twice. Thrice as it trailed along the wood of the door, to and fro against the smoothness, occasionally bumping on the splinters here and there as the insect-like demon of disease leaned its somewhat flat head against it to listen in, the mumbling awfully and annoyingly faint to the point where it was limited to what Malady could hear, and he hissed silently to himself, grin twisting into a frown which dipped to point where his abnormally long neck began.

It knelt down, knees folding into themselves and bending backwards suddenly and awfully, snapping bones audible as it lowered its head, warped mouth pressing against the minuscule gap in the door at the bottom, which allowed movement as, well, a door should. Therein did the demon raised its hind legs, bloated stinger-like tail up in the air, as a gentle stream of clear, poisonous gas left its maw, tainting and poisoning the air, slowly beginning to consume the room where the non-demons and demon-demonhunter discussed their plans, the air ever so slowly becoming thick, drowsy, paralytic. Malady grinned, swaying side to side in anticipation for the sound of fallen bodies in the room. He debated calling for the authorities for investigation of these suspicious individuals.

"No, 'fraid I don't know godsworn, but then again I only stick around headquarters long enough to report and pick up a new assignment.. never was much for socialising."Faith shrugged a little as she glanced at the nervous, younger pangolin. "Night might be the best time to move then, though I never much minded the cover a crowd gave me.. its easier to dissapear into the masses then it is to dissapear into empty streets".

Wick nodded a little, looking up when azrael adressed her"Y-yes, its taking longer then expected to find the icons of the three gods required..."she fidgetted"we've got one out of three so far but there's been reports of nega's mirror creatures slipping through and gaining a foothold...".

She cringed a little at the mention of a dark paladin"ah... I..well..". 'Means to an end"Faith cut in simply, glaring pointedly at the younger paladin to shut up. "If he can help us I don't care if his mother was a succubus and his father lucifer himself as long as it gets results..". Her younger companion gaped at her, seeming a bit shocked.

It was Wick though who noticed something was wrong first though, blinking a little"Faith... is it me or is the room starting to look... kinda hazy...". The fox jerked up her head"what...?". Ofcourse that seemed an excellent cue for the paralysis to seep into the foxes muscles and she growled as she dropped to one knee, uttering a powerful oath"Malady! has to be that little pussbucket...Wick! tell me you have a spell to clear the room!".

The pangolin winced a little"ah well.. sort of... but.. ". "Just do it!"the fox snapped back at her.

Wick cringed raising her hand with sheer willpower, starting to feel the muzzyness and paralysis settling over her mind like a thick stifling blanket"Fire in the hole.."she muttered"Consimilis!" She clapped her hands together"Califatio!". And with that she set fire to the gas, pretty much exploding it.

Well Faith had insisted she'd do it...

Azrael tenced. Ducking as the explosion went off. "You know I could have just gotten rid of that pesky but and cleared the room" he sighed now everything but the door and his personal stuff was slightly charred. "As I was saying the dark paladin works the citadel at night and knows everything there is to know about that infernal place. If we find him your mirro is safe in hand and I can escort you out of the city."

Esper watched the mayham unfold with delight.

However when Wink caused the explosion, Esper was sent back hard.

"Ow!" she cursed, "That hurt! But...It explains a lot...I must reach out to that girl! She might help me!"

Esper darted towards Wick and called to her "Help Me!" in hopes that she would hear her.

Slightly charred? well that quite depended on how you looked at things, gas explosions where usualy enough to whipe out and entire block of houses, not to mention a single house. So needless to say that which wasn't protected against such things as heavy explosions was more then slightly charred, demolished or burning.

The pangolin squeaked a little in emberasement, having protected herself from the force of the explosion with a circle of reality. Still she had a few burns.She couldn't even hear azrael, her ears where still ringing as she blinked at him, wondering how in hell he seemed completely ok. Must be some sort of demon magic.

Faith was down though, her ears where bleeding from the shockwave of the explosion and she was burn in several places, but no furter harm had been done. At least she was well enough to swear and growl and curse Wicks stupidity.

Maybe  because her actual hearing was disabled, Wick seemed to be more aware of Esper calling out to her and she turned towards the spirit started"a-a spirit?".

"Final, some one can hear me!" smiled Esper, "Please help me! I need to find a shard of revival! Please find one! But you should find an escape route. That soul seller has alerted others of your activities!"

And left under a large pile of rubble, a heavy slab of obsidian locking his unnaturally skinny hind legs into the cracked and crumbled ground, was the hissing, spluttering, screeching abnormality called Malady. With the absolute unexpected disaster which had threw him back (since, well, being so close to that door was not the greatest thing to do, apparently), the demon was crumbled into a mass of flailing long limbs, folded into and over each other, his neck bent upwards and his head against the charred floor. This was embarrassing. And painful, if you were to notice the peeled flaps of skin here and there, flopping about like his body was doing with each slight movement, revealing the filthy dirt-ridden and clogged up muscle beneath. Some were black and charred. Some were on fire, the little flames flickering. Those eye holes would have seemed wider since he was currently in a state of surprise.

But the explosion had certainly caught the attention of, well, about 90% of the population in the city, as one would expect from a bloody gas explosion. Perhaps Malady's loud and gurgled screeching was a large contributing factor, especially since he snarled something along the lines of 'demon hunter' and 'traitors' through that coughing, cracked neck of his. Perfidy kept to her stall, however, though admittedly she did flinch and cling to her jars as the rocketing explosion sent the floor-a-shaking. Yet she was still a merchant. Malady could handle himself. Right?

Right?

Azrael put on his disguise quickly while no one could see him. Lea once more. "Come girls we must go before the guard comes" he said lifting his pack of swords. And lead them towards the back door. "I have a number of houses and hideaways in the city. We must move"

( Am I allowed to join? )